One North Carolina Town Is Getting Overrun By Ducks

When my kids were little we used to take a little trip to a local pond and feed the ducks.  Sometimes this went well and sometimes it didn't.  Occasionally they would try to attack us and always there was poop.  Lots and lots of poop.  One North Carolina town is frustrated because of the volume of ducks that just don't seem to want to go anywhere.

It is all going down right now in New Bern, particularly in the Surrey Downs subdivision according to WCTI Channel 12.  Some people find the quackers charming, some want them gone.  The problem is, there is no way to get rid of them.

The North Carolina Wildlife commission says they cannot relocate the birds so if they are happy where they are they will just keep eating, mating and yes pooping.  To learn more about this story , get details here.

Last weekend at Ocracoke visitors got to witness are startling but completely normal phenomenon. The so-called bluefish blitz was responsible for hundreds of fish flopping around the North Carolina shores. The fish literally throw themselves onto the beach and in the water, it looks as though they are being churned around in a washing machine. Ultimately it led to hundreds perhaps thousands of dead fish on the beach.

Bluefish have a large number of teeth and will notoriously eat anything and everything in their path. This includes their own kind and other fish species. The smaller fish essentially blitz the shore to avoid being eaten. Unfortunately, this doesn't save them as most will die ashore.

Website FishingStatus.com says that the species possesses a single row of teeth in each jaw that are uniform in size, knife-edged, and sharp. They go on to say that the bluefish are extremely aggressive.  And what is known as the Bluefish Blitz occurs when they chase bait through the surf zone, and literally onto dry beach. Thousands of big bluefish will attack schools of fish in inches of water. This causes the churning of the water like a washing machine. In turn, the fish will willingly run themselves high and dry on the sand, where they will suffocate, rather than be shredded by the marauding bluefish schools. And this Bluefish Blitz is what occurred at Ocracoke North Carolina over the weekend.

Bluefish have been blitzing the Ocracoke beach off and on the past couple of weeks. Amazingly beautiful and tragic at the same time. Smaller fish (mostly spot in these photos) are literally throwing themselves onshore to escape the teeth in the water. Heather Johnson captured the cycle in her amazing photography. Thanks so much for allowing me to share.

🐟💥BLUEFISH BLITZ: Thousands of fish washed ashore Ocracoke, NC Friday...

I phoned a friend, @UNCims fisheries ecologist @drjanetnye tells me this blitz is normal for this gluttonous fish! @NOAAFisheries
says the ocean churn looks like "washing machine"! @Queen_City_News

Fish on shore and gulls in the air as far as the eye could see. Awesome!